Clash City Workers is a collective made of workers, the unemployed, and those commonly known as the ‘young precariat’. As a group, we formed in 2009, and we concentrate our activity mostly in Naples, Rome, Florence, and Padua; we also follow and support all struggles going on across the country.

We conduct inquiries into the world of work and we try to give a voice to all those subjects that have been hit by the crisis and are paying for it. We do that through our website, the press review, and interviews, publishing what we hear from workers in struggle against their poor working conditions.

These are the conditions of millions of workers, from those who struggle to find a job to those who struggle within their jobs, against exploitation in the factories, in the schools, in the hospitals, in the call centers, in the restaurants, in the warehouses, and beyond. We are millions sharing the same boat, but divided into countless contractual forms and hierarchies, put against each other through racialized and gendered mechanisms. Having been sold the vain illusion that through one’s individual effort one can make it, our strength is dispersed into hundreds of creeks that go nowhere. What Clash City Workers aims for is to rebuild this strength and make it whole.

Our weakness stems from us being unaware of how strong we could be. We don’t know how many we are and how many reasons we have to put our energies together. Our purpose is to give visibility to what happens in the world of work, from situations in which workers’ rights are infringed, to workplaces in crisis. We want to be a megaphone for the victories won by workers through their struggles. Awareness is the first step to assert our rights and our strength. For this reason, we also put forward analysis of the political context, trying to identify what the real issues are and what our needs are. To that end, we translate articles and information on the most significant experiences of struggle around the world, and make them known to our followers in Italy.

Nevertheless, the work we do is not exhausted with the sharing of information and the boosting of debate. If on the one hand our mission is to give the workers a direct channel through which they can make their voices heard, on the other hand we try to understand – with them – how the different struggles can be organized. That is why in our analysis we emphasize the political elements that are common to the different battles, and we create networks among the workers, so as to facilitate the creation of a united front line.

Struggle is the only way. But struggle takes multiple forms and acts at numerous levels. That is why in the last years we have taken part in strikes and marches; we have organized public assemblies and rallies; we have stood together with the workers at the picket lines and have given them technical and material support at times of mobilization, organizing resistance funds, solidarity events, and putting our inquiries into the service of their battles, helping them find the ‘right’ ground for their struggles.

It is clear that the ‘right ground’ cannot exhaust itself within the limits of national borders. The world has never been more unified, at least from the point of view of capital: there is no doubt that the bourgeoisie operates at a global level, and successfully so. Workers are caught up in long chains of demand and supply that are indeed international, like the companies they work for. We want to be effective in disrupting these chains. That’s why we reckon that a necessary step is to build networks of solidarity at an international level that are not merely verbal expressions of support, but that put workers in different countries into contact, to share information about their companies, their working conditions, and their struggles.

There is still a lot to be done! Clash City Workers is a collective open to any contribution, to anyone who wants to intervene in the workplace, and develop and connect struggles. You can contribute in many ways: you can read what the other workers, the unemployed and the precarious youth have to tell about their lives and working conditions at www.clashcityworkers.org You can spread the information to your contacts, your friends, your coworkers. You can register for our weekly newsletter, like our Clash City Workers pageon facebook, follow us on Twitter, and write us here.

Tell us about yourself and your coworkers, about the battle you are pushing forward or one you have heard about. Arm yourself with a cell phone or a camera and run wherever there is a picket, a strike, or a rally. Interview workers in struggle, and tell us their stories. Get their contact details, so that we can put them into contact with other workplaces experiencing similar situations. It is up to us to take our destiny into our hands. The road ahead of us is still long, but we need to start somewhere.